Blame Games in Reflexive Discrimination Law
Meers, J. (2026), ‘Blame Games in Reflexive Discrimination Law’, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 46(2) 444-476.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ojls/gqag007
Abstract
This article examines the upcoming commencement of the ‘socio-economic duty’ in section 1 of the Equality Act 2010 in England. The duty, which requires certain public bodies to have ‘due regard’ to reducing inequalities from socio-economic disadvantage when making strategic decisions, is part of a longer-standing ‘reflexive turn’ in discrimination law. Drawing on qualitative data from 267 civil servants and a survey experiment with a further 432, this article explores what English civil servants think about reflexive discrimination law. The article argues that engagement with the ‘blame avoidance’ literature can help to understand their attitudes. Drawing on blame avoidance research, the article argues that without adequate resources and enforcement, the socio-economic duty will be less likely to reduce socio-economic inequality and more likely to trigger blame games between central government and the public authorities subject to the duty.
In a nutshell
The socio-economic duty in section 1 of the Equality Act 2010 requires certain public bodies to have due regard to reducing the inequalities that arise from socio-economic disadvantage when taking strategic decisions. It has sat uncommenced in England since the Act was passed and is now due to be brought into force. This paper asks what the civil servants who would have to operate it make of it, drawing on qualitative data from 267 of them and a survey experiment with a further 432.
Their responses are best understood through the literature on blame avoidance. Officials read the duty less as an instrument for reducing inequality and more as an allocation of responsibility between one part of the state and another.
Without adequate resources and some means of enforcement, the duty is more likely to generate blame games between central government and the authorities subject to it than measurable change in socio-economic inequality.
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Suggested citation
Meers, J. (2026), ‘Blame Games in Reflexive Discrimination Law’, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 46(2) 444-476. https://doi.org/10.1093/ojls/gqag007